With the Race to Paris 2024 heading into its final stretch, Indian shuttlers will have an opportunity to earn valuable points for Olympic berths across categories at the India Open 2024 badminton tournament in New Delhi from January 16 to 21.
The India Open, a BWF Super 750 event, will be played at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. It is the second tournament of the 2024 BWF World Tour after the Malaysia Masters.
There are no Indians competing in the women’s singles and mixed doubles events. Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will miss the India Open due to injury.
Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and bronze medallist H. S. Prannoymeanwhile, will aim to boost their positions in the Olympic badminton rankings before the qualification window shuts on April 30.
Prannoy is currently eighth on the Race to Paris rankings and will confirm a quota for Paris 2024 if he can hold onto his position by the end of the qualification period. Similarly, the Satwik-Chirag duo, currently fifth on the men’s doubles list, will have to hold on to their position.
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth2022 Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat will also be in action in New Delhi.
According to the Paris Olympics qualification rules, two Indian men’s singles players can participate in the Games only if both of them are ranked among the top 16 in the Race to Paris 2024 badminton rankings at the end of the qualification period.
The India Open, organised by the Badminton Association of India, was upgraded to Super 750 category from Super 500 last year which means that the players can earn significantly higher ranking points in their quest for Olympic qualification.
Some of the top players in current world rankings will also be in action at the India Open. Among Indian shuttlers, one among Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat is assured of a pre-quarterfinal spot as the two will play each other in the men’s singles opening round.
Eighth-seed HS Prannoy will be opening his India Open 2024 campaign against Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, a world championships bronze medallist from 2022. The winner of the match will face either Sen or Rajawat in the second round.
The 2015 India Open champion Srikanth will meet Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu in the opening round and may run into defending champion Kunlavut Viditsarn of Thailand in the second round.
In men’s doubles, former champions and second seeds Chirag-Satwik will kick off their challenge against world No. 25 Fang-Jen Lee and Fang-Chih Lee of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have a tough opener against fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan while Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto, who made three back-to-back finals to end 2023 on a high, will face the world No. 10 Thai combination of Rawinda Prajongjai and Jongkolphan Kititharakul in the first round.
Among the other high profile first round clashes, defending women’s singles champion An Se Young of South Korea will take on three-time champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand while Spain’s Carolina Marin will face Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a clash of former world champions.
In men’s singles, former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore will meet third seed and reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng of the People’s Republic of China while top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark will open his campaign against Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei.
2023-12-31 07:20:00
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